Squeezing and entanglement in a two-mode system: theory and experiment

Tamíris R. Calixto, Pablo L. Saldanha

Vincent Josse, Aurélien Dantan, Alberto Bramati +6 more

Vincent Josse, Aurélien Dantan, Alberto Bramati +1 more

We report on the generation of non-separable beams produced via the interaction of a linearly polarized beam with a cloud of cold caesium atoms placed in an optical cavity. We convert the squeezing of the two linear polarization modes into quadrature entanglement and show how to find the best entanglement generated in a two-mode system using the inseparability criterion for continuous variables (Duan et al 2000 Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 2722). We verify this method experimentally with a direct measurement of the inseparability using two homodyne detectors. We then map this entanglement into a polarization basis and achieve polarization entanglement .

Bryan J. Dalton, John Goold, B. M. Garraway +1 more

Abstract These two accompanying papers are concerned with two mode entanglement for systems of identical massive bosons and the relationship to spin squeezing and other quantum correlation effects. Entanglement is a key quantum feature of composite systems in which the probabilities for joint measurements on the composite sub-systems are no longer determined from measurement probabilities on the separate sub-systems. There are many aspects of entanglement that can be studied. This two-part review focuses on the meaning of entanglement, the quantum paradoxes associated with entangled states, and the important tests that allow an experimentalist to determine whether a quantum state—in particular, one for massive bosons is entangled. An overall outcome of the review is to distinguish criteria (and hence experiments) for entanglement that fully utilize the symmetrization principle and the super-selection rules that can be applied to bosonic massive particles. In the first paper (I), the background is given for the meaning of entanglement in the context of systems of identical particles. For such systems, the requirement is that the relevant quantum density operators must satisfy the symmetrization principle and that global and local super-selection rules prohibit states in which there are coherences between differing particle numbers. The justification for these requirements is fully discussed. In the second quantization approach that is used, both the system and the sub-systems are modes (or sets of modes) rather than particles, particles being associated with different occupancies of the modes. The definition of entangled states is based on first defining the non-entangled states—after specifying which modes constitute the sub-systems. This work mainly focuses on the two mode entanglement for massive bosons, but is put in the context of tests of local hidden variable theories, where one may not be able to make the above restrictions. The review provides the detailed arguments necessary for the conclusions of a recent paper, where the question of how to rigorously demonstrate the entanglement of a two-mode Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) has been examined. In the accompanying review paper (II), we consider spin squeezing and other tests for entanglement that have been proposed for two-mode bosonic systems. We apply the approach of review (I) to determine which tests, and which modifications of the tests, are useful for detecting entanglement in massive bosonic (BEC), as opposed to photonic, systems. Several new inequalities are derived, a theory for the required two-mode interferometry is presented, and key experiments to date are analyzed.

Antonio S. M. de Castro, V. V. Dodonov

Hoshang Heydari